AVERT2015 Recap Part 3

No, you aren't losing your mind, I'm actually posting on a day that isn't a Wednesday! I'm still swamped at work but I wanted to give you another installment of our Road Trip Recap (see part 2 here). Check back tomorrow because I'm going to actually try and get back to my What I'm Loving Wednesday link up! :)

We left North Platte early that Sunday (okay, it was 9am, but that was early for us). We had a few places in Nebraska we wanted to check out before heading on to South Dakota. The drive was beautiful, we saw MILES and MILES of farmland. We drove through the town of Oshkosh (NOT the home of OshKosh B'Gosh- that is in Wisconsin). But, it was still a cute little town. 

Amber waves of grain...

We made it to our first stop of the day, which was Chimney Rock National Historic Site (yes, we are all about history). The first thing we saw when we got out of the car was this sign....

Now, my first thought was...do the snakes know how to read and know to stay OFF the sidewalk. Needless to say, I was on high alert. Every noise I heard, I was certain it was a rattlesnake. Sad to say (no wait, I'm HAPPY to say), we didn't see a snake.

I didn't know much about Chimney Rock, but it was still a neat place to visit. It is considered the most famous landmark on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. If you are ever in the area of Bayard, NE, check it out. We didn't stay too long (honestly, after going through the museum, all you can do is look at the rock from the station, you can't actually get to it), but it was still a neat piece of history. 

I took this picture just because my birthday is May 23. :) This happened 126 years before I was born.

Our next stop was about an hour down the road from Chimney Rock at Scotts Bluff National Monument. I consider this a "must see" if you are in Nebraska- it was beautiful! I have to say, the forecast kept saying it was going to rain all day that Sunday. It didn't start raining until AFTER we had spent several hours at Scotts Bluff- thank you Lord. I'm so glad the rain held off. We were able to get some great pictures. We did some hiking as well (nothing major, maybe a total of two miles). They also had signs to watch out for rattlesnakes. Again, I was on high alert, but we didn't see (or hear) any. Whew.

It was kind of cool driving through tunnels cut into the rock/mountain

Like I said, the rain thankfully held off until we were actually leaving Scotts Bluff. We stopped for supper before hitting the road. We were trying to get to South Dakota before it was too late. Mel took over driving at one point. I rarely use SnapChat (I'm a terrible Snapper, wait, is that what you call people who use it? Oh well, whatever). I'm not that great on it, but feel free to add me, my handle is Averyfan (are you THAT surprised?) Lol. ANYWAYS, I sent this snap out (it somehow saved to my phone, so I'm adding that picture here. :) 

We were driving along when all of the sudden the car in front of us slammed on their brakes and veered off the road. We were about to yell at them for their crazy driving, when we realized that they saw the South Dakota state sign and that is why they stopped so fast. Lol. Of course, we also stopped for a quick picture (and actually silently thanked them for stopping so suddenly, we totally would have missed it). It was SO WINDY, and still raining some, but we got our pictures! :) 

The fourth state of our trip

We made it to Keystone, South Dakota well before dark (weehoo). Our motel was actually the closest motel to the Mount Rushmore entrance (it was a Super 8 motel, nothing fancy). But it was clean and the staff was super nice. More on our visit to Mount Rushmore next time! :)

XOXO!!

AVERT2015 Recap Part 2

So, for the past week (and for the next two weeks), I'm working an insane amount of overtime at work. Because of that, I totally forgot it was Wednesday, so I don't have a What I'm Loving Wednesday post ready. :( I had started the second part of my road trip recap last week (and never got around to posting it, again, because of working so much), so I'm just going to use that for a post today. Come back next week for the What I'm Loving Wednesday link up! In the meantime, enjoy part two of AVERT 2015 (A Very Epic Road Trip)! :)

If you missed the first part of my recap, click here.

The third day of our trip we were in Abilene, Kansas. Funny side story: this whole road trip started because I asked Mel if she would like to go to Abilene to see the Dwight Eisenhower presidential library (most of you know I'm trying to eventually see all of the presidential libraries. And right now #5 on my 101 in 1001 list is visit three presidential libraries that I've never been to, so I can mark that one totally off). A long weekend trip to Kansas grew into a 10-day road trip. Lol. We can't help that we are over-planners. :) Anyways, we got to the library early that morning. I really enjoyed it. I'll be honest, I didn't know much about Eisenhower (I should be so ashamed) but after going through the library, I am interested in doing some reading on him.

My 6th presidential library (there are 15 total)

The library/museum is actually at the exact location where Eisenhower grew up. We had stopped at his birthplace in Denison on our way out of Texas (as mentioned in the first recap). He only lived there a brief time, he spent his childhood and youth in Kansas. We got to tour the actual house he grew up in (we only got to spend like five minutes in there, they kind of rushed us through). I love looking at old houses that are restored to the way they looked when people lived there. It seemed so tiny though, he came from a pretty big family. 

On the steps of Eisenhower's childhood home

Inside Eisenhower's childhood home

There is currently a World War II exhibit at the library. For those not familiar with Eisenhower, he was a five-star general in WWII (I did at least know THAT about him before going to the library). It was very interesting. I'm always fascinated with anything regarding WWII.

We were at the beginning of the WWII exhibit, and what's the first thing I notice? Something about Audrey Hepburn. It's like they knew I would be there. :)

I enjoyed reading the exhibits about Eisenhower's life and his marriage to his wife Mamie. She seemed like a funny lady, I definitely want to read more about her. They had some of her outfits in the museum, and also a short video of an interview with her.

Eisenhower is the only president to win an Emmy in recognition of his extensive use of television 

The final resting place of Eisenhower, his wife Mamie, and their son Doud Dwight, who died when he was only three

I see a statue, I pose. I can't help it. Lol

After we got to Kansas the day before, I was wondering if they had some sort of Wizard of Oz museum (it would make sense to have one in Kansas, right?) It turns out there was one, and it was only about an hour out of our way, SO, we decided to make a side trip to check it out after we left Abilene. If you are ever near Wamego, Kansas, it's worth your time to check out the Oz Museum. :) Wamego is a cute little town. We were there on July 4th and they had a carnival in the middle of town. They were also setting up for a parade that would take place later in the evening (we saw a lot of floats and decorated cars). 

The Oz Museum has a lot of information about the actual Wizard of Oz books and the author L. Frank Baum (I had no clue there were about 40 books in the series. I personally own 10 of them). Also, before the famous musical was filmed, another movie version and stage version were produced (obviously they were not that good since we only talk about the 1939 movie version). They had collectibles, some artifacts from the movie, and autographed memorabilia from original cast members. They also had exhibits that talked about Return to Oz (anyone else remember that movie from the 1980s) and The Wiz. 

There's no place like home...there's no place like home...

Follow the yellow brick road...I was kinda sad the WHOLE floor wasn't yellow, but oh well...

Mel snapped a picture of me watching some sort of documentary on L. Frank Baum

After a slight detour getting out of Wamego (thanks to streets being closed down for the parade), we were on our way and made it to Nebraska well before dark. We obviously were wanting to take pictures at each state sign, and we knew we were close to the Nebraska border, so we were on a look out for it. Mel saw an old looking church she wanted to take a picture of, so we took a side road to get to it. Instead of turning back around, I noticed another street that looped back to the highway. It just so happened that street met the highway at the exact location of the Nebraska state sign. We thought that was cool! No need to slam on the brakes in order to get a picture (yes, we did that more than once on our trip). Lol.

The third state of our road trip!

After stopping at a mom and pop restaurant for supper, we were determined to make it to North Platte to stay the night. If you ever plan to stay in North Platte and think, hey, I won't need hotel reservations, who else would want to stay in North Platte, Nebraska- seriously, think again. There was only one hotel with an available room (sadly it wasn't a cheap hotel), but at least we had a place to stay and weren't forced to sleep in my car (the next town was at least 60 miles away). Granted, this was also on the Fourth of July, so maybe North Platte is the Fourth of July Capital of Nebraska or something.

Sorry for the overload of pictures today (sadly this isn't even a dent in the pictures we took), but I hope you enjoyed them! :) I will try my best to get another recap up before NEXT Wednesday. I'm working overtime until August 2, so we shall see. Have a great day!!

XOXO!